Our last post on how to blend a spring inspired batt was pretty popular, so we decided to do another seasonal tutorial to celebrate summer!

Previously, we chose a photo of an iris for our inspiration; this time around, we’re using a freshly cut sunflower!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A Strauch Drum Carder (we used a Strauch Petite)
• 1 ounce of Yellow fiber
• 1/8 – 1/4 ounce of Red/Scarlet fiber
• 1/2 ounce of Black fiber

The sunflower in the sample had an orange hue with striations of a rusty red color, so we laid down a 1 ounce base of yellow fiber and approximately 1/8 to 1/4 ounce of the red. This ratio will vary depending on the color of the petals. As with all art, the exact ratio doesn’t matter as long as you get the essence of your inspiration.

Blend these two fibers a total of two times, removing the batt from the carder each time.

After the first pass with yellow and red.

Then, take the orange fiber and pass it through the drum carder as a base for the next step.

Take approximately 1/2 ounce of black fiber and turn it into skinny strips. Pass them through on one side of the drum carder. This is in order to keep the black and orange slightly separated.

Remove this batt, and elongate it by gently drafting the batt into something that looks like thick roving. This will create a long strip of fiber that keeps the black stripe on one side, and the orange stripe on the other side.

Pass this through the drum carder one more time, taking care to keep the colors aligned as the fiber feeds onto the drum.

This will help mesh the fibers together along the line between the orange and the black. If left as is, the black fiber wouldn’t want to stay part of the batt, and would probably come off in one big chunk while spinning.

This technique is a great way to have a heathered section and solid color section in one batt. By separating out the steps, you can get more distinct sections in your finished batt.

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